Ugg Needs To realise Boots Are Going Out Of Style

Sales are down at Ugg, and executives are desperate to figure out why and fix the problem.The company blames the decline on unseasonably warm winters, but some analysts say there’s a bigger problem at hand:

Boots are going out of style.

Regardless, Ugg needs to make an important transition in order to stay relevant. The boot-maker needs to get customers hooked on products that aren’t dependent on the weather or fashion trends.

“The worst is yet to come,” Sam Poser, an analyst at Sterne Agee, told the Huffington Post in October, adding that “weaker Uggs sales might not just be due to weather, but may indicate that the boots have fallen out of fashion.”

Ugg executives are well-aware of the problem.

“The weather situation was pretty extreme and that really made us think more like retailers in making sure we have transitional product so we’re not as weather dependent,” Ugg president Connie Rishwain told Women’s Wear Daily. “Also, newness is key and that’s what the customer wants.”

Ugg has adjusted its 2013 product offerings to be more versatile, Rishwain told WWD.

The company is also ramping up spending on advertising. Ugg famously hired Tom Brady in an effort to get more men to wear the product.